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LORI) BROUGHAM’S ATTACK 



UPON 


GENERAL LEWIS 


BY AMERICANUS. 


CASS 



i 

21 

47 


WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARK S. 


Harrisburg, $a.: 

PRINTED AT THE ARGUS OFFICE. 


1843 . 








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GENERAL CASS AND LORD BROUGHAM. 


The columns of the Harrisburg Argus promptly 
expressed indignant feeling at Lord Brougham’s 
attack upon General Cass. That attack ranks among 
the most remarkable incidents of the age. From the 
motives that instigated it, and vast results upon the 
great theatre of European politics* that had evidently 
blown it up into such rage, it cannot be too widely 
known to the American people-. 

Lord Brougham, formidable- by his intellectual 
powers, is at the same time the most hot-headed, 
unbridled abolition peer ini all Britain. Exasperated 
at General Cass’ protest against the Quintuple Alli- 
ance, he rose in the British House of Lords, and 
denounced him in terms mure outrageous than were 
ever before heard of in that branch of Parliament, 
which, for the most part, is characterized by a certain 
decorum m debate.. Being out of the reach of respon- 
sibility, he even impeached the motives of this distin- 
guished American, intimating, with assumed signifi- 
cance,. that they were* of a dishonorable kind. 

Now,, whence all this out-pouring of gall from this 
passionate British peer; this “ stormy petrel,” as a 
London caricature once aptly likened him to — flying 
over the channel, and dipping into its foaming billows? 
The answer is memorable. The answer has become 
a part of modern history. It was, simply and 
exclusively, because General Cass, by his matchless 
protest whilst Minister of the United States at Paris-, 
achieved results the most momentous, not merely for 
his own country, but for the liberties of all Europe 


4 


upon the ocean, menaced by this eternal cant about 
the slave-trade ; Brougham himself being at the head 
of the canters in England. Here is the key to his 
belligerent thunders against General Cass. France 
abstained from joining the Quintuple Alliance, mainly 
on account of that happily-timed and irresistible 
protest; irresistible by its clear elucidations of the 
great code of international law, and convincing 
demonstrations of international policy. That she 
did, was bolted out by Lord Brougham himself in the 
House of Lords, in the very act of taking his abolition 
vengeance upon General Cass ; its blindness overlook- 
ing the transcendent compliment it implied to our 
countryman. The same truth was openly proclaimed 
by Lord Palmerston, in the House of Commons, who 
had recently, as British foreign secretary, been 
familiar with the whole subject. It has been since 
reiterated in the London Quarterly Review. It is 
now, in fact, the fixed judgment of Europe on this 
remarkable event in its public affairs 

Here we would pause, with the honest pride of 
Americans. We would ask, when has it been the lot 
of any individual to receive homage like this ? There 
is something in it to arrest universal attention. We 
are unable, at this moment, to recall any case parallel 
to it. It ascribes to individual instrumentality, in the 
person of General Cass, who acted upon his own 
promptings, (as Mr. Stevenson had nobly done in his 
sphere at London,) the breaking up of one of those 
dangerous combinations among states then on the eve 
of consummation, the demolition of which is never 
looked for, and rarely effected in the history of the 
world, but by the decisive interposition of national 
influence or power. 


5 


It forms a solid and enduring tribute to duty wel 
performed by a public servant of this great Republic 
abroad. In dwelling upon it, we desire to abstain 
from all exaggerated praise. It requires no praise at 
all at our hands. It is wholly national in its nature 
and results. Its intrinsic importance is seen in the 
simple statement of it. Great minds are made for 
great energies. Where precedent does not exist, 
they fall back upon their own resources. They 
strike out in advance the rule for others to follow, 
and plaudits, in due time,, wait upon their foresight 
and exertions.. 

Such,, in our humble opinion, are the plaudits in 
reserve for General Cass; and we would flatter our- 
selves that Americans of all parties, on carefully 
regarding the relative positions occupied by the 
General and Lord Brougham on this remarkable 
occasion, will share our indignation at the attempt of 
this British peer to detract from his fame. And how 
does he compare with him? We confidently reply,, 
as Thersites did with Achilles, The one can do 
things; the other, berate the author of them. Or, 
taking a comparison from home, let us rather say 
that he is, to our Cass,, something as Monmouth Lee. 
of Revolutionary memory, was to Washington ; more 
pungent in vituperation, and all bold licentiousness of 
tongue ; but at an immeasurable distance behind him 
in the conduet suited to great occasions ; in self- 
government,, where that is necessary; in independent 
firmness, where that quality is demanded ; above all 
in the knowledge and wisdom suited to direct the 
course of nations, and vindicate, for the benefit of the; 
present age and after ages, the just liberties of man 
kind. In all these spheres, the morbid aspirations-ofi 


6 


Lord Brougham to be doing the world’s business at 
“ world’s conventions;” his dogmatism, his egotism, 
his petulance, his passion, and his presumption, render 
him, with all his acquirements, infinitely the inferior 
of General Cass.. And we doubt not, also, but that 
his crest would have fallen, could our* illustrious 
countryman have faced him after his late libels — as it 
fell before old Lord Lynedoch lately; or, not to bring it 
up vauntingly in this connexion, but historically, as the 
British banner yielded to the early valor of our then 
patriotic Colonel Cass, at Aux Canards:; where he 
struck the first victorious blow in honorable combat 
against it, in the second w r ar of Independence. 

It is under such impressions as all these, that we 
believe we shall be rendering an acceptable service 
in laying before the public, in the present form, the 
admirable article, signed “ Americanus,” that appeared 
in the Globe of the 22d of May. All who have read 
it, have been delighted with it — wherever we have 
heard it spoken of. As a composition, it combines 
point with force. It deals with Lord Brougham as 
he deserves, and does justice to General Cass for 
those extraordinary services, to his own country and 
Europe, that drew forth his malignant attack. It is 
a condensed, comprehensive production, full of truth, 
spirit, and patriotism. We republished it immediately 
in the Argus ; but think we cannot err in predicting 
that it will be received with pleasure also in this 
more portable form, by every American in whose 
bosom the just pride of country is felt. 

We feel, however, that we shall err, (if we have 
not already,) by detaining the reader any longer, by 
further remarks of our own, from the treat that 
awaits him in reading the article itself. 


[From the Washington Globe.] 


LORI) BROUGHAM’S ATTACK 

UPON 

GENERAL CASS. 


General Cass has reason to congratulate himself 
that his late glorious services at Paris, in arresting 
the insidious schemes of England for investing herself 
with the supreme dominion of the ocean — an object 
which she has pursued, through centuries of progres- 
sive aggrandizement, with an eye that has never 
winked, and a step that has never faltered — are now 
receiving the highest attestation to their efficiency and 
importance in the unmeasured denunciations of British 
pride and resentment. No wonder that Henry Lord 
Brougham and Vaux — who, with all his extraordinary 
gifts, has sunk into the Thersites of the British 
Senate, 

“ Awed by no shame ; by no respect controll’d ; 

In scandal busy ; in reproaches bold — 

should glory in reviling, “with licentious style,” so 
shining a mark for malignant vituperation. After 
having arraigned Monsieur de Tocqueville, one of the 
greatest geniuses and most profound political writers 
of the age, before the British House of Lords, and 


8 


upbraided him for the offence of having called in 
question the new British claim of a virtual right of 
search in time of peace,. “ with marvellous ignorance’ 
— “ignorance the most incredibly profound”— it was 
quite a natural transition for his Lordship, in follow- 
ing up his vocation, to turn upon our illustrious coun- 
tryman, (to whom British power owed a far deepei 
debt of vengeance for ambitious schemes thwarted in 
the very moment of their expected consummation,) 
and bestow upon the vigilant and successful American 
Minister some of the choicest flowers of his Lord- 
ship’s parliamentary billingsgate, 

It is, indeed, a most edifying spectacle to see this- 
Henry Lord Brougham and Yaux — who, in his bold 
pretensions to universal knowledge, has incurred the 
character of the most presumptuous sciolist of his day 
— one of whom, a distinguished countryman of his 
own, and a learned professional brother, keenly 
remarked “it was a pity he didn’t know something: 
of law, and then it might be said he knew a little of 
everything” — reproaching one of the most able and 
accomplished ministers and jurists of whom any 
country can boast, with “having no more conception 
of even the rudiments- of international law, than he 
has of the languages spoken in the moon,” and “no 
more capacity of reasoning, than he has of under- 
standing legal points and legal differences !” Equally 
edifying, is it to see the inflated lordling,. who, without 
official trust or confidence in his own country,, is per- 
petually thrusting. himself into the concerns of all the/ 


9 


cabinets of Christendom — who, without any delega- 
tion of authority from either party, atone time puts 
himself forward as mediator between England and 
France, and at another, attempts to play peace-maker 
(or rather mischief-maker) between America and 
England — who, in short, is the universal busy-body 
and intermeddler of the age — magisterially rebuking 
General Cass for u stepping, out of his own province, 
and mixing himself up with French affairs — witli the 
negotiations between France and England — which he 
had no more to do with, than he had with treaties 
between any two powers in the peninsula of India, 
and obtruding upon the French Government his 
officious protest against the treaty between England 
and France, to excite war between the two countries.” 

Lord Brougham, then, would have had General 
Cass, the trusted depository of American rights and 
honor at a foreign court, to stand by with folded arms 
and sealed lips,, while he saw a great maritime con- 
federacy about to be formed and consummated, which, 
if not aimed directly at his country, would necessarily 
compromise her safety in a most vital' point, and over- 
turn those principles of maritime freedom and inde- 
pendence for which she had invariably contended, 
simply because the United States were not , technically , 
a party upon the record !/ Strange narrowness of 
views this, for one who sets himself up as par eminence 
the model of a statesman and international jurist. 
The end and aim of the quintuple treaty, so far as 
Great Britain was concerned* and its necessary effect 


10 


in practice, would have been to subject the whole 
commercial ocean to the supreme jurisdiction of the 
British naval police, not only in regard to those 
powers who were parties to the treaty, but, as a con- 
sequence of the new British doctrine of the right of 
visitation . against all the other maritime powers of 
the world. The immense and extended circumference 
marked out by the treaty for the exercise of this new 
and arrogant police, embraced all the accustomed 
paths of American navigation and commerce, and was 
pushed, as if in the wantonne&s of defiance, into very 
contact with the American coast. 

General Cass was not the man, at a moment like 
this, to stultify himself by a timid, ceremonial diplo- 
macy. Feeling that the vital interests of his country 
were at stake, he cast aside all thoughts of himself, 
and all fears of personal responsibility, and boldly 
appealed to our ancient ally (whose ratification alone 
was wanting) to reconsider, with the profound reflec- 
tion due to the gravity of the occasion, the work to 
which she was now required to put the final seal of 
her approbation. The appeal was successful, as it 
could hardly fail to be, enforced as it was by an able 
and conclusive exposure of the dangerous conse- 
quences which lay concealed beneath the fair exterior 
of the projected league, and resting upon a triumphant 
vindication of those glorious principles which France 
and America had so long held in common, in regard 
to the freedom of the seas. France withheld her 
ratification ; and the fabric which Great Britain had 


11 


been so long and so painfully constructing, in the 
fond hope of at length accomplishing, by the general 
concurrence and support of the powers of Europe — 
the darling object of her ambition — at once crumbled 
into ruins. This cruel disappointment of British 
hopes and machinations was the work of an American 
minister, who proved himself equal to the exigencies 
of a great occasion ; and well has General Cass 
deserved the honor of the denunciations and ran- 
corous abuse so lavishly bestowed upon him, whether 
by the brawlers of the British forum, or the scrib- 
blers for the British press. 

The value of his services t© his own country, it 
were difficult to appreciate, even by any approximate 
standard. Had the quintuple treaty been consum- 
mated by the ratification of France, (and that it was 
not, was owing essentially to the timely and spirited 
interposition of General Cass,) we have the authority 
of both Lord Palmerston, in the late debate in the 
House of Commons, and of Lord Brougham, for 
saying Great Britain would have been so flushed by 
the success of her projects., and so emboldened in the 
pursuit of her long-cherished aim of undisputed supre- 
macy on the ocean, that America would have had no 
alternative but war or submission on the great ques- 
tion of maritime rights, on which she had staked her 
character and fortunes. Submission is a word not 
found in the vocabulary of American patriotism. 
War, then, with the greatest maritime power in the 
world, would have been inevitable — and with the 


alliance of all Europe, secured to her beforehand, to 
back and sustain her in the conflict. By the bold 
and skilful efforts of General Gass,, in averting the 
ratification of the treaty, France was detached from 
this menacing and formidable Anglo-European con- 
federacy, and restored^ to* her natural and ancient 
relations of cordial co-operation with the United 
States, in defending the liberty of the seas. This at 
once gave England pause; and, by transferring to the 
side of the United States the powerful ally which had 
been detached from her, enforced upon her councils 
the necessity of peace with America. 

All this is, with great naivete , very unequivocally 
confessed in a leading article of the last number of 
the London Quarterly Review, on the treaty of 
Washington. Speaking of the final rejection of the 
quintuple treaty by France, which, the reviewer says, 
“was mainly occasioned by a pamphlet of General 
Cass, which he sent round to all the French Cham- 
bers, and subsequently by his formal intervention as- 
American Minister,’ 1 the article proceeds to develope. 
in the following terms, the new attitude which that 
occurrence gave to the relations of the United States 
and : England : 

“The result was,, that,, instead of tile anticipated facilities of 
arranging the question (the right of search) with the United States. 
Lord Ashburton found them and France united , and arrayed in a 
most violent and warlike opposition to any arrangement of the ques- 
tion. We shall go more at large into this matter by-and-by; here 
we only mention it to explain how much this sudden and unex- 
pected junction of— -we will not say interests, (for the supposed right 
of search is a mere bug-bear,) but of— passion, between two such 


13 


powers as France and the United Stales, must have enhanced the 
difficulty, and, at the same time, the necessity , of arranging our 
American differences . ’ * 

It was the masterly diplomatic coup de main of 
General Cass, in separating France from the alliance 
'©f England, and uniting her again with her ancient 
and natural ally, the United States, which alone dis- 
posed England to an arrangement of her American 
'differences on any terms compatible with American 
honor. It was General Cass’ able management at 
Paris which rendered an adjustment practicable at 
Washington ; and if, unfortunately, we shall hereafter 
be drawn into a contest with England on the vital 
question of the freedom of the seas , it will be owing 
to General Cass’ vigorous and long-sighted states- 
manship, that we shall engage in the contest with the 
co-operation and powerful support of our ancient 
ally, instead of having to encounter her on the side of 
the adversary. Come what may, he has, by a signal 
ability, which knew how to improve a conjuncture 
which falls to the lot of but few men, in the most 
-splendid career of public service, contributed to place 
his country in a position of impregnable strength, as 
well as lofty honor ; and, with the consciousness of 
'Such services, and of the reward which never fails to 
.attend them, in the affection and applause of a grateful 
people, the clamors of titled or untitled defamers may 
well “pass by him as the idle wind, which he respects 
not.” 


AMERICANUS. 


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